I've never been big on competing in video games. Never a big fan of fighting, sport, racing or any competitive multiplayer games. What compels me to play video games is the story telling and self accomplishment side of the medium. I've been able to avoid competition in video games through most of my life. The golden age of arcades and "high scores" started to die out with the release of the very popular and history changing console, the NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM. I was born four years later and only knew home console video gaming. Not competing with anyone else, saving Princess Peach was a personal accomplishment. I remember playing Street Fighter II for the first time against a friend and not understanding why everyone loved it so much. It wasn't fun to me. It was frustrating. The reasons of me not liking it most likely revolved around the fact that I wasn't very good at it. When someone is introduced to a game and it's supposed to be FUN and isn't because the person you're playing is way better than you because of the hours of practice, it's a turn off. This was always the case for most multiplayer games for me. So needless to say, I steered clear of them. I ended up loving games because of the challenge they presented within themselves. For years, I was comfortable. For years I was safe from competition..
.. Then the "Achievements" were born.
At first Achievements seemed like a cool idea. Pushing personal goals to a new level. But soon enough, Achievements took hold of what I held so dear and made it into something irritating. Achievements added competition into my safe little world. And it has bothered me ever since it's creation.
The GAMER SCORE (GS) has become something of a "bragging right." You get an Achievement, it brings with it a certain amount of points that are all added to your GS. The increasing amount of games you play that unlocks more and more achievements is added to your GS. This process has become an addiction and a competition to many. Whether they want a higher score because they think it means they're better "gamers" or just need to complete a game as much as possible simply for the "completionist" title, Achievements gave birth to the "Achievement Whore" (AW).
The AW will make playing games that have no competition element whatsoever into an all out "hell in a cell" match! In the past you would beat a game like MAX PAYNE and all you would have to you are memories. The only trophy or proof you would have is your own honest pride. The only motivation would be self accomplishment. You would do it for you. You could brag about it to the friends who cared, and they could believe you or not, but in the end the only one that remembers and believes you is you. That's pride. Imagine we began to be watched and rewarded for giving money to the homeless. How many more people would be doing it because of the reward? And how do the people who always did it start to look? They get piled up with the rest of them. You might be thinking to yourself..
"O Anthony, why don't you just ignore those AW if they bother you that much!?"
That's a good point! But let me explain the thing about this that bothers me most.
My favorite game of all time is GTAIV. When someone has all the achievements for GTAIV and looks at my achievements for the game and sees that I don't have all the achievements, they scoff. I ask them how much they like the game and they say..
"eh, it's ok. I like Saints Row more.."
That's when the angry fires from my heart begin to burn! You're telling me that an amazing game that you don't like much was only worth the GS? How dare you treat a MASTERPIECE like GTAIV like if it were some PROSTITUTE! It's as if some guy was using the woman of your dreams just for sex, and treated her like dirt, when you would treat her like a Goddess because she's worth your time and love! THATS what bothers me about achievements. "Bragging rights" instead of being self proud. I'm sick of seeing these AW's scores and by the numbers, they're considered "better gamers" than me! They most likely have all the time in the world to get all those achievements just so they can brag about it to people who don't have the time, like myself!
If you love a game, play the hell out of it and get all the achievements. You deserve to have that bond with a game you love. If you think it's OK, then play it once and don't go out of your way to get achievements that you don't even care about. Leave those for the people that care for that game. Otherwise, you're just feeding your unhealthy AW addiction. And no one likes an addict.
In the end, if someone has a lot of Achievements that only represent time and not love or fun, then that person loves the fake reputation. Not the game. My GS is over 25000 points. I have over 100 Xbox games with 1000 points to each. Which means that I have only achieved 25 percent of the achievements available to me. Some might call me lazy or under-appreciating. I disagree. I only use my time to appreciate video games. Not squeeze the life out of them. I respect the genre too much to simply just PLAY or boast about how much I can waste time.
